Chicago ‘burb ditches red light cameras, no safety advantage

Schaumburg, Illinois has decided to say no to red light cameras after …

There are many reasons for Chicagoans to poke fun at the northwest suburb of Schaumburg, but the existence of red light cameras soon won't be one of them. Officials expect to get rid of Schaumburg's sole red light camera in July after the local police department has determined that it provides no appreciable safety benefits.

The city originally installed the camera at a busy intersection near the ever-popular Woodfield Mall sometime last year as a testing ground before the city installed more cameras. According to Schaumburg Mayor Al Larson, the city had been sold on pitches from red light camera companies claiming that the devices would help prevent serious accidents.

Like other municipalities, Schaumburg began issuing $100 tickets in November to those found blowing the red light, generating some 7,000 tickets by the end of 2008, according to the Daily Herald. By February, that number climbed to over 10,000 and $1 million in revenue. Apparently very few accidents were prevented, however, and the city got numerous angry phone calls from citizens and tourists alike, resulting in the camera being switched off in February.

"The result is very few crashes at any of our major intersections have been the result of traffic signal violations," Police Chief Brian Howerton told the Herald. He reiterated that other cities may want to change driver behavior by using tickets to force drivers to stop, but Schaumburg's goal was always to prevent collisions. As a result, Howerton is recommending the city take down the camera and not install any more. "It was not our intent to use them as a revenue generator," Mayor Larson added.

Schaumburg's decision stands in stark contrast with most other municipalities that have installed the devices, including the city of Chicago. In many of these cases, data showing that red light cameras increase safety is conveniently missing, as exemplified by a high-profile case in Denver earlier this year. Instead, cities love raking in the ticket revenue while hiding behind the thin veil of safety, even though it has been argued that the surest way to increase safety at red lights is by extending the yellow period. The state of Mississippi, however, has bucked this trend by banning red light cameras on the state level earlier this year. While we hardly expect the entire state of Illinois to follow suit, it's nice to see smaller cities like Schaumburg eschew such a lucrative revenue source because the product simply doesn't do what it claims to do.

Update: A person "familiar with the matter" in Schaumburg says the city largely decided to get rid of the camera due to complaints from out-of-towners who wanted to shop at Woodfield Mall, and Schaumburg didn't want to ruin its image of being a "suburban shopping mecca."